I do not know what it is, but something changed in the past month for me when it comes to taking pictures. I worry about a lot of things, I never thought about before, I do like playing with lights, projectors and “no light” or “low light” windlight settings. The less light you have around you, the more control you get about the lights around you. In the past I first chose my windlight and then added one or two lights or projectors – lately I do it the other way round. I first set up my lights and then look for a windlight, that supports my idea. In the beginning it felt weird to set up out of the darkness, but it becomes better with each try. As well I discovered different desires, which I would like to have for my pictures and so I started a few new “learning projects”. I watched a lot of tutorials, practiced a lot and learned many new things.

One project that started – I tried to start that, since my vacation had begun – was to paint hair. I do have a graphic tablet forever but besides using it for textures I never touched it for pictures, as my mouse felt so much better with that. But try to paint hair with your mouse.. even if you really think you can control your mouse perfectly, but things like the pen pressure, I only get with the tablet. I forced myself to play with it and watched many tutorials. Slowly it starts working, but it really needs a lot of practice and I am not yet ready to show it off more than a few strands of hair 😉

To not loose my motivation, I started to play with some ready made hair strands and wisps as well as hair brushes for Photoshop, as those as well helped me a lot to understand the basic hair drawing. When I found the strands from Rayne Morgan, I was completely speechless. I rarely saw such a well drawn hair in all it’s details and if you are willing to credit her work, she even offers a few free downloads on her Deviantart site (https://www.deviantart.com/raynemorgan).

There I found some interesting ready made hair as well for instant use. I always had wondered, how some photographers were able to paint or photograph hair and have such amazing results on Flickr. When I saw the website of Rayne Morgan… I immediately did know how a few did that 😉

It is really breathtaking how that hair can change a Second Life picture like it did for the closeup above. You get the hair as a PSD file. You are able to color and as well warp it, until it matches your Second Life snapshot. I could not resist, to even work on that one by adding some more wisps and paint some little strands myself. It is not the end of my hair-paint experiences, as I really want to archive painting my own hair completely one day, but I wanted to share the progress and as well the way of keeping up my motivation to do so 🙂

Wicca’s Wardrobe @ The Secret Affair August 2018 – Sepetmber 5th

Panic at the Zoo is the theme for this round of The Secret Affair. We let our inner fashion beast out with the Minerva Claws, a must-have statement piece of jewelry for your SL inventory! The Minerva Claws HUD gives you a wide array of options. Not only do you have 6 metal and 6 gemstone colors, you can choose which parts of the claws you want to show or hide. That includes all fingers parts, the connector on the hand and as well the bracelet. You also have the option to wear the claws only on one hand or on both hands, all via the HUD. The Minerva HUD provides so many options we had to make it a two-sided HUD! You can try out the Minerva Claws at the event, so you can get a taste of how versatile they are before you buy.

Wicca’s Wardrobe @ Gacha Garden August 2018

For this round of the Gacha Garden we have created Isabella. This flirty set offers 2 rares and 15 commons. Rares come with a full color HUD for all parts of the item, commons have one basic color and only a mini HUD for laces (1-10) and for laces & socks (11-15).

Our Seed of Inspiration gift, which is only available during the event, is the Isabella Collar. It comes with a HUD that offers options on the lace, metal and gems. The Seed of Inspiration Gift is only available during the event. Isabella is made only for Maitreya’s Lara.

Wicca’s Wardrobe @ MBA Fair 2018 (August 1st – 21st)

It’s MBA time and we have our Esther boots up for grabs. These ultra high boots are made for Maitreya’s Lara, Slink’s Hourglass, and Belleza’s Freya. Esther comes with a HUD that gives you color options for the boots, straps, laces & sole (10 leather colors / 6 metals colors). Our Esther boots are a great match to Nichole Body, which we are currently offering at the Fetish Fair.

Wicca’s Wardrobe @ Fetish Fair 2018 (August 3rd – 17th)

Our Nichole Body is our entry into this round of the Fetish Fair. This leather bodysuit is accented with buckles and lacing that make it not only sexy but interesting. It is a perfect match to our Esther Boots that we are currently offering at this round of the MBA. The Nicole Body comes with a HUD for body, straps & laces (10 leather colors / 6 metals colors). Nicole is made for Maitreya’s Lara, Slink’s Hourglass, and Belleza’s Freya.

Never wanted to feelNever wanted you to steal my heartNever wanted to knowNever wanted to show I’m weak

Always wanted to beAlways wanted you to see my heartAlways wanted your loveAlways wanted but never was

Never told you beforeNever loved you more

I’m falling all over myselfTrying to be someone elseI wish you would dare to walk me homeSo I wouldn’t have to feel alone

I’m falling all over myselfDying to be someone elseI wish you would dare to walk me homeI don’t wanna fight the world alone

[Pretty Reckless]

Pose: Infiniti – “Coy 3M” (lightly moded for the left arm)

“When you judge others, you do not define them, you define yourself” [Earl Nightingale]

I am sure we all know that feeling… you got hurt to the bones and all you want is revenge in the very first moment, before your mind comes clear again.

It feels like some one ripped you apart and you want nothing more, than that person slowly dying, under all the pain that you even can imagine. Sometimes maybe we even need that feelings to wakeup, even if it feels like your heart got ripped out. Sometimes it opens our eyes that we closed by trust to someone, no matter what others said.

I am guilty for that, because I never listen to what one person has to say about another. I want to make my own experiences, without being biased by any kind of opinion. That might sound stupid to many, but for me in general it was a good thing, even if you get disappointed and hurt sometimes. I would not have met some of my dearest friends, just because others did not go well along with them. When you get older it is easier to listen first and to keep it in the back of your head without letting it affect your first meeting with a new person. But in general I am still stubborn with that and wanna know that person first before do any kind of judgment.

If you met such a person, and you go along well over many years and then all of a sudden that person turns around 180° and shows exactly that behavior, that you was warned about, THAT even hurts more than a ‘usual’ disappointment. That happened to me only 2 times in SL for thank god and not too many times in RL either. But in that very moments, it felt a blood rage coming up from deep inside and I was not able to do anything, because I was not even told what my mistake would have been, to make that person change so badly. You think of all kind of actions what you could do to that person, not only to hurt them but to get rid of that pain deep inside you. Sometimes it even makes you crazy when you try to figure out, what could have happened and do not find anything that would lead to such an action.

I always was a hot head with deep emotions and when I was younger it was even worse than today. As a kid I had to take immediate action somehow to lower that kind of pain. Today I at least can sit back and calm down first. After some time the pain lowers and I do not anymore feel like blinded by a mask of rage. I learned to deal with that kind of pain. Usually I tell myself, that we are all humans and humans are doing those things sometimes. That I am not always responsible for 360° mind changes, just because some people like to listen to others and never really do the hassle to try to get you known, or ask about a gossip they were told. That would require a lot of strength, to confront someone with a gossip and maybe not getting the response that you want. It is easier to believe something someone said about somebody, instead of going to that person and say “Hey I heard you did this/ said that about me”. I do that and even that can cost you a friendship, but then… that friendship might not have been hold too long anyways, or not being worth the effort to do that. Like Frank N. Further sang it already in the Rocky Horror Picture Show “Don’t judge a book by its” cover”! Sometimes it might be worth it to at least read the first few lines before you doom someone. You even might be surprised, what is behind that cover – or even that gossip you heard – if you know both sides. I know taking that time is an effort, but it might pay off positive in the end 😉

Real friendship, that even survives gossips and mistakes, is something very valuable to me and I do have a very few people in my RL and SL, that I would put my hand into fire for and I know – anyways when I call them, or if I try to reach them – they will be there for me – even in the middle of the night.

Having those friends, who even listen if you are in a bad pain psychological or physical, makes that pain not that heavy anymore. Sometimes they even can help you to calm down and see the other side of the coin by taking off your rage mask.

I am grateful for all of you, that helped me through hard, emotional situations. You know who you are, without me throwing names! Than you for making my Second Life more nice everyday and sometimes even my real life ♥

Music was my first loveAnd it’ll be my lastMusic of the futureAnd music of the past.To live without my musicWould be impossible to doIn this world of troublesmy music pulls me through

[John Miles]

When I saw the outfit from today, I immediately had something in mind for pictures. As usual it did not wanna come out as intended and I had to think about something else.

The “Melodic Doll” from CURELESS[+] is another masterpiece of their amazing design. I always loved CURELESS[+] as they are creating things that are usually outside the box and very special. The details and the incredible skills of designing always was something that was marvelling. Every little detail is sharp and crisp and their creations usually need more than just one look to see their full beauty.

The whole set is rigged to fit the Maitreya Lara mesh body and with the alpha HUD you can fit the outfit perfectly to your avatar. The arms and legs of the “Melodic Doll” look typically like the ball jointed dolls, which we all might know from your childhood play toys 😉 I totally love the look on my avatar now as well 🙂 The limbs are a little thinner as your regular mesh body ones but that even more gives you the doll feeling.

The “Quaver” shoes of the gacha set are only working with the common dolly legs and won’t work with normal human feet. Some other unrigged shoes of mine did fit the dolly feet as well, but for the post I certainly chose the matching ones from the “Melodic Doll” gacha of CURELESS[+]. The box has no special animations in it but you can adjust it to every pose that you use easily.

The RARES of the set do have a HUD for full customization, while the COMMONS only have little HUDs that change the details.

As a musician, I adore the whole set and it was a must have for me. I hope you will have the same fun and happy feelings that I had when you get your “Melodic Doll”!

Not too long ago I had an interesting discussion with a good friend of mine about modeling and how it changed over the past years. It was interesting and a few things she mentioned really had me think about a lot.

I went back to the basic idea of a model… what is a model? The model usually is a blank vessel, where a designer can project his vision on (quote of Wolfgang Joop). That means it is not about the model at all, it is about the designs. Certainly a designer might have special preferences about certain shapes and faces, but in general they are just a mannequin wearing the designers creations, styled after the designers imagination of how he wants to see the outfits.

So why some models throw a tantrum, when they get told certain styling requirements? Like short hair, a certain makeup and strict regulations about jewelry and accessories?

I was thinking a lot about that and where in Second Life that could have come from…

Maybe it is because people got mixed up by pageants and modeling? Both of them have nothing to do with each other. A pageant is about the person doing it, modeling is about showcasing designers creations!

In the beginning, there were not so many models in all those pageants that were held in the past. All of a sudden everyone had to be the face of whatever and to win the “Miss Whatever” title – I never understood why to be honest, I never had that desire. I was talked into doing this kind of things 2 or 3 times and I regret each time, as it only did cost money and time for nothing. It was not what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a model, to showcase designers creations and their hard work – not being a beauty pageant participant, being all pretty and smooth and kiss my way up to where ever it was necessary. We all know beauty is in the eye of the beholder and with a good relationship to an event owner, designer or judge, your chances get higher by nature – we are all humans. In the end no one wants to work with a winner, that he/she can’t stand for a certain period of time, again we are all humans after all 😉

But what did that do to SL modeling?

All of a sudden people wanted to be recognized for their avatars when they were walking a runway. One started to pose “fierce”, the next one tried as hard as possible to ‘accessorize’ the shit out of every outfit – anyways if it did fit or not – to be noticed on the runway.

By all means, I do love expressive posing myself on pictures and at themed shows or productions, that request those kind of poses. But for a general casual, formal or regular runway show, to me it makes no sense to spread all limbs out as far as you can, even if for quite some time it was called “fiiiierce” posing.To me fierce or dramatic posing doe snot have to be all spread out and hands up in the air like I would be ready to take off or acting like a GoGo dance animator in a discotheque.

If you ever watched a RL runway show for general fashion – not talking about special shows like Alexander McQueen had – the posing is very clean and simple. Again models showcase a designer, not being actresses on a red carpet – and even those keep it quite simple usually as they represent a designer with their clothing most of the time as well 😉 I am not saying there is no room for anything else, but for ‘usual’ runway shows I can see, why people prefer the more simple way of posing and styling. Simplicity can be the key and it can be so much more modern if you keep your poses updated and re-invent your posing each time and not just use the same 20 poses over and over again.

There is as well 2 kind of shows in Second Life, that require two completely different ways to approach them with posing and stying. We have the ‘usual’ runway shows like fashion weeks or special designer showcases and then we have the theater, show or event like shows which are mostly themed. For example a special Halloween show, where the main focus is on the event itself and in opposite to a fashion week those kind of shows are more to entertain people. Last summer Trouble Dethly and his group did an amazing example how fashion, event and as well a theater fashion show can be combined with their Thereafter event. Designers provided outfits, but as well did know it is not just a runway show but more of a ‘happening’ to entertain the main grid users. There we can go all crazy with posing as long as it follows the story, you even can use little animations to underline your character while on a runway I am all for static poses.

For accessories it was quite the same and all of a sudden avant garde was the way to go on the runway. I love avant garde BUT in Second Life avant garde seemed to mean you put a bunch of metal scraps on your head, go half naked and try to fill as many attachment points that you can and certainly do not forget your wings… If you look for the general idea of avant garde fashion that is so way off… it could not be more away from the subject, but thats a completely different story 😉

But I can understand why modeling is kinda dead in Second Life at the moment, because of all this things besides an economic/business aspect as well which made fashion shows not anymore profitable for most of the designers.

I get that models were taught to be unique and to stand out, but there is so many ways how you can do that without taking all attention off the clothing and onto your avatar… It is so much more important to make a brand out of yourself on your flickr and blog instead of runway shows. When you are making pictures or go out window shopping all prim-perfect styled, it can do a lot. Especially on blogs and pictures you can express your styling abilities, your way of posing and you kinda have no limits if you are not blogging a certain piece for a designer. That is why I love posts and pictures so much where you do not have to showcase any specific item and just can go with the flow of your imagination.

Like the pictures for today’s post. I tried to put the idea of standing out off a crowd with not too much accessories and to underline my statement about being unique. I already posted all the items before when I wanted to showcase them and so I had room and freedom to play with them now and try to create my imagination in Second Life. It was not an easy way though and probably took the longest time I ever needed for a picture to be done. I wa struggling with the idea and the inspiration since March 2018. Now we have July and I am still not 100 % satisfied but this time it felt that was the best I can do with my actual skills – I am learning everyday something new 😉

The face is something that makes every human unique anyways – if they do not have a twin and even those have their unique trademarks if you take a really close look. So if you ever were at a Second Life modeling agency you were told your face is the most important and unique trademark you have. Anyways what it looks like as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, if you push the limits of human face proportions slightly and well thought you really could create a very unique look in the past with system heads. Then for quite some time many models were struggling wit the first wave of mesh heads. The static mesh heads in the beginning were not really as ‘character’ friendly as the system heads were. Only a very few sliders reacted to customizing and the skin more or less was the only way to create a unique look somehow. I hesitated a long time myself until I gave it a try and I felt so relieved, when bento came to live and we were able to customize your faces and heads again more even with a few limits to bento bones. Nowadays I am very happy with the head and the skin and even if we are told constantly to update I am stuck with the head and the skin since I got it.

With the pictures I wanted to try to express a feeling or an emotion that follows me for quite some time in both worlds. I am not yet ready to really tell the whole story behind it, as it is a very vulnerable spot in my soul, but maybe with the ongoing process of playing with that picture idea, it will come out eventually and I am brave enough to tell. But for now it shows how you can have a face, how you can be unique with not much on yourself than just your face. I really hope i did make sense in what I was talking about, even if I tried t not go too deep into it and not let my emotions take over too much.

Big thanks goes out to Hill.S (Hillany Scofield) and her amazing exhibition that let me find those mannequins, which I needed so desperately for my pictures. She is an incredible artist and picture queen and has such an amazing installation going on – I have to go back and take a picture there, as I promised her 😉

Through the Eyes of a Child

Sweet innocent child with your open eyes.
You’ve seen us for who we really are.
And I know that there’ll be tomorrow.
So that hope can have it’s glory day.
And I wish that this world would embrace you
from magic stars and mystery.
My open heart …Why did we make it so hard, this life is so complicated
until we see it through the eyes of a child.
Why did we make it so hard, this life is so complicated
until we see it through the eyes of a child.

I know you, I’ve seen your face before
you brought me to this open door
afraid to walk through.
Please take my hand.I know that there will be tomorrow.
So that hope can have it’s glory day?
And I wish that this world embrace you
from magic stars and mystery.
My open heart …Why did we make it so hard, this life is so complicated
until we see it through the eyes of a child.
Why did we make it so hard, this life is so complicated
until we see it through the eyes of a child.

I see where we’ll go from here.
‘Cause love doesn’t break
with the right amount of care
in your hands is whom you’ve choosen to be.
Life is a freedom.
Now go out there and be free.

Why did we make it so hard, this life is so complicated
until we see it through the eyes of a child.
Why did we make it so hard, this life is so complicated
until we see it through the eyes of a child.